<p>Well, I'm going to be a junior and I have one last chance to change my schedule for junior year.
My dream school would be UCLA.</p>
<p>I'm just wondering if I should drop Mandarin 4 and take Theater Arts 1.
I'm mostly afraid that having 5 academic classes + speech and debate would make my grades drop, thus canceling out any benefit from the 4 AP's.
I want to take Theater Arts 1 because I was the lead in my middle school drama production, and I have been taking acting classes outside of school, and I would like to join Advanced Drama my senior year.</p>
<p>I'm leaning toward dropping Mandarin 4</p>
<p>This is my current schedule:
1. AP English
2. AP US History
3. AP Calculus
4. AP Environmental Science (I really am interested)
5. Mandarin 4 or Theater Arts 1
6. Speech and Debate</p>
<p>Hard to tell since each school is different. My son took only 2 APs his junior year and it was a killer. AP Calculus had 9 hours of homework per week, at least. He would not have had enough time to take 4 of those courses with all his ECs. But, I've seen lots of students at private schools take 4 or 5 APs. My personal opinion is go for the elective that you like, regardless of the college outcome. You only live once. Plus, if you really like theater (which it sounds like you do) that could lead to some interesting life experiences which could lead to great topics for your essay.</p>
<p>I would say 4 APs junior year is plenty. It depends on how many your school offers.</p>
<p>Are you Chinese? If not, KEEP MANDARIN 4! You'll be glad you did. Most schools in the US don't even have a class like this, so seize the opportunity.</p>
<p>Remember that the UC weighted GPA only counts 8 extra semester points, so if you took any honors/AP classes sophomore year, you won't get the full benefit of the 4 AP classes.</p>
<p>I am Mandarin, so I don't think it is as important.</p>
<p>I suppose I won't get to have my 4 AP's all weighted since I took Chemistry Honors last year and English Honors for the second semester, but it still looks good on the applications right?</p>
<p>Try visiting the UC website. They have detailed statistics about their admitted students, probably including how many AP classe they took in HS.</p>
<p>ok so i took only 3 APs my senior year and got into ucla, ucb, etc...i think you will be fine
ps: do you have a channel on youtube, cuz your username reads familiar</p>
<p>actually, at arcadia high, those classes shouldnt pose too much of a challenge</p>
<p>anyway, 3 classes in your schedule, namely mandarin 4, apes, and apush are actually not as hard as they may seem. stevens for apes is actually pretty easy on the hw side on things. same with jong, who also grades those mandarin tests very leniently. apush is easy if you take half an hour a day to read the book. people complain because they dont read the book.</p>
<p>just dont push yourself in eng h/ap eng like i did and ruin my other grades.</p>
<p>oh, and one more thing, try to do well on your sat i and sat iis early in the school year. thinking/worrying about them after a screw up (like me) casts an unshakeable spectre over the year which is arguably your most important</p>
<p>take it from an incoming senior, who also just happens to go to arcadia and had a somewhat similar schedule</p>
<p>The thing is, if Shen is teaching Mandarin 4, then I'll be screwed.
If I have hard teachers for my classes, I'll be screwed.
If I have medium teachers for my classes, I'll be pretty effing tired.
If I have easy teachers for my classes, it'll be slightly harder than sophomore year.
It all depends on luck!</p>
<p>just to let you know.. uc's dont do the capped gpa anymore. i just spoke with the dean of ucla and they said that they look at fully weighted gpa now, regardless if you are elc or not.</p>
<p>If you go to Arcadia high and you're only taking 4 aps then it's not enough..</p>
<p>Doesn't Arcadia have like 20+ APs? I know my school did (Mount Carmel HS in San Diego, we played in band tourneys vs you guys all the time).</p>
<p>Well you're in state so I can still see you getting into UCLA with good grades so don't worry so much. Just be thankful you're in state rather than OOS.</p>
<p>yea, if ucla is looking at gpas unweighted, it would be much more welcome, especially for the typical arcadia kid who takes loads of aps/honors class</p>
<p>Many people don't seem to realize that most colleges have no minimum quota for APs, especially since some schools don't offer APs (they may offer the IB program or the might have neither). I believe that the average student at many top colleges who takes any APs at all takes 4-5 APs, so you're fine.</p>